• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!

    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A TR3 Speedo

mountainman

Jedi Trainee
Offline
I have a new speedo cable and th po states he bought the speedo off Ebay and was advertised to work however it doesn't. The odometer is all zeros. Question, Can I hook a drill up to the trans. end and check to see if it moves that way? If so what could be wrong on the other end?
Thanks
Greg
 
You can check it that way. The drill must be reversible, as the speedo cable turns in the counter-clockwise direction (looking at the back of the speedo).

Couldn't guess what might be wrong at the transmission end, but I can tell you there are several places inside the speedo where it might be gummed-up.

I advise using a small screwdriver to try to turn the speedo drive shaft by hand before you attach the drill motor. Sometimes that shaft gets stuck, which can cost you the cable in very short order if you're running it under power. (The voice of experience.)
 
I would be careful about spinning the speedo, as one of the big problems I've seen is that the odo gears (both the trip and regular) will strip if you power up the speedo on a unit that has set for a long time. What I've discovered by taking several of these apart, is the the fiber gears running the two odos are pressed on a shaft that runs in the aluminum housing. The shafts are greased from the factory, and over time, this grease turns to glue...run the speedo, and you will strip the fiber gears. I went through great pains adapting some nylon gears from McMaster to get my odos to work.

If you take the mechanism out of the casing, getting at the odo shaft and gears is pretty straight forward. Pop them out, clean up the grease that turned to glue and you should be OK. I opted to lubricate the shafts with some oil rather then grease.

Also, as Moses suggests, a small cheap screwdriver will work fine to drive the speedo. The hole is square, so I found one the fit it diagonally and cut the handle off so I could chuck it in the drill.
 
Thanks Guys,
Dan, the Rhodes manual was very helpful. I took mine apart and everything look alright except the gear that drives odometer is missing along with the reset. I don't see why that would keep the speedo from working. Any ideas?
Greg
 
Back
Top